Brazilian cattle ranching destroying Amazon forest/soil.

This petition pertains pertaining to isssues involving the clearing of rainforest in the tropics for cattle to produce shoe leather and beef and human rights abuses that go along with it.
 
Most consumers don't wish to buy shoes from companies who destroy tropical rainforest to produce leather.

Cattle, by their evolutionary nature are creatures of the plains/grasslands.....they have evolved to eat grass.
 
Burning down rainforest to create artificial and temporary grasslands which in turn kills thousands or potentially millions of species of plants, trees and animals native to the tropics is extremely reckless, careless and dangerous.
 
Let's raise cattle in a natural, humane, freerange fashion in the places on earth where grasslands/plains occur naturally and not try to alter the tropical rainforest ecology to accomodate cattle.....surely the world already consumes enough meat.....perhaps we should harvest more of the plants, fruits and nuts that occur naturally in the world's rainforests for consumption.....most of these fruits, plants and nuts are extremely healthful and natural for people to eat and simply require identification and plans for sustainable harvesting.

These are foods which have an evolutionary history with people and primates.

Meat in moderation is healthy but excessive amounts of meat...in particuliarly, factory farmed meat raised in areas that were formerly tropical rainforest teeming with diverse life is not healthy to buy or eat.
 
The environmental damage caused by raising cattle through clearing tropical rainforest with it's associated degradation of the soil, pollution of rivers and killing of fish/aquatic life with silt which washes into rivers through erosion because of lack of protection by forest cover and the exposure of and damage to soil through exposure to intense tropical sun is too great a price to pay for a pair of shoes or increased meat consumption.

In tropical rainforest such as those in Brazil it is estimated that 90% of the species that exist there live in the tree canopy (upper levels of the trees).

Since tropical rainforests are estimated to hold 50% of the planets species the canopy of rainforests worldwide may contain 45% of life on earth.

Various studies by environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Treehugger, Mongabay and others, including governmental sources reveal that 80% of Amazon deforestation stems from clearing forest for the purpose of cattle ranching.

 Eventually this practice becomes extremely detrimental to animals, plants as well as human beings as the ecosystems of the earth are further degraded.
 
Perhaps worse is the human rights/labor abuses that are reported to occur in the production and processing of the leather to make the shoes and/or to raise the cattle and process the meat from cattle.
 
Eventually it becomes more and more difficult for intelligent people to continue to buy these products from companies who practice these abuses without compromising their sense of right and wrong.
 
These abuses are now becoming more apparent through the worldwide media and people will surely begin to buy from companies who practice ethics and morals in business.....I like shoes, but I would also like to visit Brazil and the Amazonian rainforest someday with my daughter and not a Brazil stripped of rainforest and filled with broken/impoverished poor people who were exploited by unethical business practices that sacrificed the greater good for excessive profit.

Although there may be a certain level of inevitability to cattle ranching in Brazil efforts should be made to regulate and control this agricultural industry to slow down it's growth substantially to an environmentally sustainable level, if there is such a thing in this area of the world which is not an area where grasslands occur naturally.

We the undersigned agree with the sentiments of this author and would like to see the government of Brazil develop strict regulations limiting the cattle industry's growth in Brazil including the practice of factory farming which adds insult to injury through cruelty to domestic animals.

We also would like shoe manufacturers to refrain from buying leather produced by agribusiness that raises cattle through destoying tropical rainforest, which is now being cleared at an alarming rate by agribusiness in many of the world's tropical zones.